Dahaka
'The Dahaka '''serves as the physical manifestation of the inevitability of fate. The creature is found during the events of ''Warrior Within, ''and also has a role in Battles of Prince of Persia.'' The beast is the guardian of the Timeline, and seems to appear only when the Timeline is disrupted; in The Sands of Time, the Prince uses the Sands of Time to massively manipulate the Timeline and cheat his own death. Therefore it is the Dahaka's duty to make sure that the Prince meets his death in order to restore the timeline, thus making it the primary antagonist of the game story. It is often said that it is due to the the sleepless nights spent running away from the Dahaka that the Prince has acquired his darker, more mature looks (although the events of Forgotten Sands may have been a contributing factor as well). Details The Dahaka appears as a massive and powerfully built humanoid, clad in black. It has long ram-like horns that twist in the form of a lemniscate, the symbol of infinity, and its eyes burn with a fierce inner light, though the area around it is always covered in shadows. It also has the ability to shoot multiple tentacles from its abdomen. Every aspect of this being suggests it is a creature of a more supernatural world. Until the very end of the game, it is impossible to fight the Dahaka, as it is seemingly invincible to sword thrusts, and if the Prince doesn't keep enough distance from it, the Dahaka captures the Prince with its tentacles. At several points in the game, (known amongst players as "Dahaka Chases") the Dahaka will catch up with the Prince and chase after him. The player will then have to flee through a series of obstacles in order to escape the beast. If it does catch him, it will reduce the Prince to sand and absorb him, thus eliminating him and his actions from the Timeline. The Dahaka appears blurry during these moments and can sometimes teleport a few yards at a time, and during these times an instrumental version of the song "I Stand Alone" by Godsmack will play in the background and, when the Dahaka is close enough, the screen will change to a black and white and/or sepia tone color scheme. During his adventures, the Prince discovers that, like all the Empress' sandy minions, the Dahaka has an intense aversion to water. Contact with water harms the creature, and it cannot pass through the curtains of water that cover certain palace doors and corridors. The Prince must exploit this weakness to escape the Dahaka. Because of this weakness to water, some fans speculate that the Dahaka is a sand creature and was probably created by the same beings that created the timeline, the Empress of Time and the many time artifacts (dagger, amulet, hourglass, etc) and was created for the purpose of preventing the misuse of the timeline by the sands. Additionally, the Dahaka will appear in the past during two cutscenes. The first occurs after the Prince unlocks the throne room. In the Central Hall, the Sandwraith suddenly appears before him, then the Dahaka blocks the exit, causing the Prince to surmise that the monster has somehow followed him to the past. Strangely enough, as the Prince begins to flee, the Dahaka grabs the Sandwraith, kills it, and leaves. Later, after the Prince has himself become the Sandwraith and traveled back in time using the Mask of the Wraith, he encounters his past self at the same time and place. Knowing of the attack beforehand, the Prince is able to elude the Dahaka, allowing his past self to perish and freeing himself from the Mask. Although no explicit explanation is given about the Dahaka's odd behavior in these scenes, it is likely that the Dahaka is only supposed to take the Prince's life one time (which would end the Prince's existence if he had not been wearing the Mask of the Wraith) and thus does not kill the remaining Prince (the Sandwraith). Additionally, this helps the Prince because the Mask of the Wraith cannot be removed until the other version of the wearer is dead, and because the "past" Prince is killed, the "future" Prince can take the mask off and resume his life as the Prince. An alternative theory is that the Dahaka already exists in the 'past' time period as guardian and is reacting to the presence of two versions of the same person in the same place at the same time, it does not yet have any business with the Prince over events of the Sands of Time as for it these event have not yet happened. This assumes the Dahaka exists linearly in time. Trivia *The Dahaka can be compared to the Marut, a somewhat similar creature from Dungeons & Dragons. Both are massive, dark-colored, extra-plannar beings who unendingly hunt down those who have cheated death, seeking to bring about their rightful and inevitable demise. Both creatures are known to walk steadily toward their prey when they've located it, and use short-range teleportation (a dimension door spell, in the Marut's case) to gain ground during such chases. They are both extraordinarily powerful creatures that are impossible to defeat by all but the greatest of characters, and both have resistance to damage from all normal means save for one weakness (Water in the Dahaka's case, and Chaotically-aligned damaged for the Marut) *The Dahaka's horns resemble the infinity symbol ( ∞ ), perhaps indicating its eternal existence. *The Dahaka may have very likely been named off a creature from Persian/Iranian mythology known as Aži Dahāka. This creature's name then translates to titles such as "Dragon-King" or "Serpent-King". *At times the Dahaka is huge but somehow is sometimes just a little over the Princes height. It is not known how the Dahaka can change height, if the Dahaka is a sand creature, it may have a limited shape shifting capability. *The Dahaka speaks in reverse. When the Dahaka speaks, if time is turned back it's sentence can be understood. *Strangely, despite being set between Sands of Time and Warrior Within, The Forgotten Sands does not feature or mention the Dahaka. It could be argued that it's only a matter of time before it hunts the Prince, that and it may have considered Ratash and the sand army too powerful to fight. *When you fight Kaileena for the first time she says:"I hoped that the Dahaka would finish you off...", but when you fight her for the second time (with the Water Sword) and the Dahaka appears Kaileena says "What is that thing!". She either didn't know what the Dahaka looked like, didn't see it clearly to begin with or a minor plot hole. http://princeofpersia.wikia.com/wiki/Dahaka Category:Characters